Rocket To The Moon.

I had the strangest dream. And to be honest, it scared me. The reason it scared me was not because it was a nightmare, but because it made me come to a shocking realisation. One that I was not comfortable with at all, but one that I knew was very true.

In my dream, I was back at the hospital, in the waiting room. Except this time, I wasn’t there waiting for my parents, I was waiting for Rocket. I don't know how I knew this, I just did. There was a door right in front of me, one that hadn’t been there in the original hospital. But in my dream, I felt compelled to go through that door, and when I did, Rocket was waiting for me on the other side. He was standing in front of me, dressed normally, but with loads of wires and tubes attached to him as if he were being kept on life support, though when he walked, he seemed perfectly fine. He stepped slowly towards me, and extended his hand. I tried to reach for his hand, but somehow, I couldn’t. Although I could see him very clearly, only about a metre away from me, I couldn’t reach his hand. It seemed like the only part of him that was miles away. I tried to walk towards him, but found myself only getting further away, so my walking speed escalated until I was running. I don’t know why, but I felt like I really wanted to get to him. No, not just wanted, needed. But I was just getting further and further away. He was becoming more distant. He stretched his arm further in an attempt to help me, but it was no use. Eventually, I stopped running, and just stared longingly at him. The fact that I wasn’t able to reach him properly made me feel upset, depressed, lost, empty. He tried to approach me and did far better than I had, his hand was almost touching mine. I reached out for him, but the moment our fingers touched all of his wires fell off, and his body just crumbled right before me. He was gone. The walls of the room began to spin, and menacingly started to close in on me. Then I woke up. It was a strange dream, that I told myself didn’t have any meaning whatsoever, it was just a result of the trauma and stress I had been over the past few days. But even as I was awake, I felt the need to touch Rocket’s hand. I wasn’t entirely sure of what had provoked this dream and why I felt like I needed to be with Rocket so much, but I had an idea…and it was worrying me. I looked over at his bed, and he was sleeping restlessly. Even when asleep, and possibly experiencing another one of his nightmares, his face was still angelically handsome. More like Perfect...

*Rocket’s POV*

I had another crazy dream. But this one wasn’t like my others. This one was about Hero. I’d never dreamt about her before, which is why this one surprised me. I dreamt that I was at the hospital again, but this time, I was a patient. I was just standing there, staring at this door. I had no idea what the significance of the door was, but I knew somehow that the door was important. The room I was in didn’t really look like a hospital ward…well…not one that you’d want to stay in anyway. It was dark, and damp. The corners of the room were made up of endless black abysses of shadow. Strange silhouetted shapes loomed over me on the dirty brick walls. It felt cold. Suddenly, the door opened, letting tons of light into the dark room and lifting the creepy atmosphere of it a hell of a lot. And when the door was opened fully, I saw Hero enter. And for some reason, when I saw her, my heartbeat went crazily fast all of a sudden. I wanted her to approach me, but she just stood there, so I extended my hand to beckon her over. She tried to reach for my hand, but couldn’t. And when she tried to walk towards me, she just seemed to get further away. And the same thing happened when I tried to walk towards her. It was so frustrating. All I wanted was to be able to hold her hand, and I didn’t even know fucking why. Eventually, she started to fade away. I tried to call her name, but my throat was so dry, and I couldn’t make a sound. She faded completely, and the room collapsed around me, and I woke up. It was a pretty fucked up dream. And at first I didn’t really understand why I wanted to hold her hand so much. And seeing her made me feel strange, it was almost as if…

No…

I shook that thought immediately from my mind. I couldn’t be…I couldn’t actually like her as more than a friend. She was just Hero. She was barely even my friend. She was almost nothing to me.

Right?

*Hero’s POV*

I was sat on the couch with Gracie, watching some weird show on the TV, not really paying much attention to it, when the doorbell rang. I was about to get up and answer it, but someone else beat me to it and saved me the job. I heard their footsteps walking down the stairs and then heard them clicking the door open. I went to see who it was, obviously. It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t go check it out - I’m way too curious. I stepped out into the hall in time to see Rocket opening to door to an unfamiliar looking boy.

“Tom?” Rocket said, his voice coated with disbelief and shock.

The boy grinned “Hey, buddy” he said.

“What the fuck are you doing here, man!?” Rocket asked, still sounding surprised.

“Well…” the boy was about to say something, but Rocket promptly halted him.

“Wait. You can’t use my real name in front of her” he pointed to me.

“What? Why?” the boy Rocket had referred to as Tom asked.

“Long story…just, call me Rocket when she’s around, okay? In fact, better call me that all the time, just to be safe. Now, what are you doing here?”

“Okay…” Tom looked kinda confused “Well, I found some of my old schoolwork, and it reminded me of you. And then I remembered that day when you just disappeared completely…you didn’t leave any clues as to where you’d gone, didn’t tell anyone anything, and it confused me so much. So, I decided to try and track you down. And clearly, I succeeded” Tom explained.

“What is going on here?” I asked.

“Alright, Hero, this is Tom. He was my best childhood friend. Tom, this is Hero” Rocket said.

“Is she your girlfriend?” Tom asked.

“NO!” we both yelled at the same time.

“Alright, alright, there’s no need to yell in unison!” Tom held up his hands defensively.

“You haven’t changed at all” Rocket said to him, with a hint of affection in his voice.

“I wish I could say the same for you, dude” Tom replied “You look terrible. Are you okay?”

“We have a LOT of catching up to do…” Rocket muttered.

“You don’t even seem pleased to see me” Tom said, sounding hurt “And I was so looking forward to meeting up with you again. You were the best friend I ever had”

“I am. It’s really great to see you, honest” Rocket said.

“Well couldn’t you at least smile?” Tom asked. Rocket sighed, and asked him to go through into the kitchen with him. I was slightly confused…the idea that Rocket used to have a close friend (Possibly even several close friends), I found quite hard to believe. He just didn’t seem like the type of person to do that. And I couldn’t work out why Tom was acting so surprised by Rocket’s behaviour. He’s like that all the time. It wasn’t abnormal for him. Maybe he used to be different?

Tom intrigued me. He must have been very fond of Rocket to have come searching for him like this. And he said that Rocket had just disappeared; was that after his parents had died? Was it because his parents had died? And this boy also knew Rocket’s real name, meaning he probably did know him before that. This made me realise that there was probably a lot about Rocket that I still didn’t know. I had no idea what his life was like before we adopted him and before he lost his family. But to be honest, I was already aware of the fact that I didn’t know much about him. But this just made me grasp the fact that I really didn’t know much about him at all. He was a mystery.

About an hour later I was in the kitchen making myself a drink, when Tom entered.

“I need to talk to you about Rocket” he stated.

“Sure. Sit down” I indicated to a seat and he took it. He looked worried.

“Is he always like this?” he asked, getting straight to the point.

“Like what?”

“So…emotionless and…well…sulky?” Tom said.

“Always” I replied “It’s just how he is, I guess”

“But he never used to be like that!” he sounded frustrated.

“He didn’t?”

“No. We used to have loads of fun together. He was a great kid. Always happy and energetic. Now he’s just…not himself anymore” Tom said.

I remembered telling Rocket that he wasn’t being himself at the hospital when he was being nice to me, then realised I had been very wrong.

“Well what the hell happened?” I asked.

Tom shrugged “His parents died. And that’s the last I heard of him. He just disappeared. He never came back to the same school, he didn’t say anything to me, he didn’t say anything to anyone, he moved house, and he literally vanished”

“I know that he spent a couple of months living in an adoption centre” I said “And then we adopted him pretty quickly”

“So, you’re like his sister, right?”

“No” I replied quickly “That’s kinda complicated…”

“I’ve got time” he said, waiting for me to proceed.

“Well basically, my parents bought a house with their best friends, who are also married. I know it sounds kinda strange, but they’re extremely close, and they thought it was a good idea. My Mom’s best friend married my Dad’s best friend…and then they all became friends, and there you have it. So my parents had me, and their friends became like my second parents. Unfortunately, they are incapable of having children, and one day, decided I was lonely…so they adopted Rocket” I explained.

“But were you lonely?” Tom asked.

“Not really. Although I did like the idea of having some company my own age. Unfortunately, Rocket didn’t exactly live up to my idea of good company” I replied.

“That’s a shame” Tom muttered “He’s just so different to how he was when I knew him. I mean, I’m even having to call him by a different name. It’s like he’s a totally different person”

“Dude, up until recently I didn’t know a single thing about him. For four entire years he hardly spoke to me”

“The kid I knew was friendly and outgoing” Tom said sadly.

“I can’t imagine Rocket being like that…” I replied.

“So, you’re not related to him in any way at all?” he asked.

“Nope. Only recently he’s admitted that I’m his friend” I said.

“Is that an achievement?”

“Definitely. As far as I know, I’m the only one” I shrugged.

“Actually, that doesn’t surprise me. He didn’t have that many friends before, only a few very close ones” Tom said.

“Did they also wonder what happened to him?” I asked.

“Of course” Tom replied “But I was the only one who really held on to it. Say, does he still draw?”

“Yes, but he keeps it on the down low” I answered.

Tom smiled slightly “He was great at that”

“He still is”

“I remember one time, my sister broke up with her boyfriend, and she was absolutely heartbroken. So, Rocket drew a huge portrait of her to cheer her up, and it bloody worked. I think she still has it somewhere” Tom said.

“That’s amazing” I replied.

“He and I used to have so much fun. We used to race each other down the road on skateboards trying to knock the other person off. We had water balloon fights in summer, and in winter we just sat for hours and hours playing video games. He was a fun guy. My best friend” he said.

“That just doesn’t sound like the Rocket I know…” I said sadly.

“Do you think we could change him back?” Tom asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I know him better than anyone else on the planet, and this isn’t him at all. I think, if we tried, we’d be able to change him back to how he was before” Tom explained.

“Well, that’s going to be quite difficult for me, seeing as I have no idea what he was like before” I shrugged.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you” he said “I’m just worried about him. That guy is not my best friend”

“Alright, I’ll help you” I agreed.

“Thanks, Hero” he smiled “You’re a great girl”

So this was, overall, really weird. A guy had turned up claiming to be Rocket’s best friend (Although it wasn’t as if I didn’t believe him, because Rocket agreed with that statement too). And now, this guy wanted me to help turn Rocket back into…Rocket. But the thing is, my view of the real Rocket was totally different to his. He found Rocket’s current behaviour weird, whereas I found it impossible to imagine Rocket being the boy Tom had described. And I failed to mention the fact that he was slowly changing anyway, even though it was only gradual. I mean, in the past few weeks I’d seen him smile for the first time in four years. That clearly meant that there was some progress. Maybe eventually, with a lot of help from Tom, I would finallybe able to see him being genuinely happy?